TechFreedom challenges FDA’s new ecig regulations

Back in May, the FDA finalized its ‘Deeming Rule Regulations’ for E-cigs – which would force many E-cig companies out of business in the US. The issue with the regulations is that they set the predicate date at February 15, 2007 – at which point modern E-cigs hadn’t even been developed or introduced into the market yet.

The regulations would essentially require E-cig businesses that didn’t have products on the market by this date to go through a very expensive and time-consuming application process in order to get/keep their products on the market. But only a handful of companies will likely have the money to invest in such a process – meaning that this could severely hinder the E-cig industry as it exists in the United States today.

Information! Businesses without the money for the process will face no other option than to shut their doors. But Nicopure Labs, a US-based E-liquid manufacturer, has challenged the new FDA regulations – and TechFreedom has filed an amicus brief in support of this challenge.

What is TechFreedom?

TechFreedom is a think tank. Their mission, as described on their official website (Techfreedom.org), begins with the following…

“Our mission is to promote the progress of technology that improves the human condition and expands individual capacity to choose by educating the public, policymakers, and thought leaders about the kinds of public policies that enable technology to flourish.”

And now, they’re joining forces with Nicopure Labs, and have filed an official amicus brief in support of the company’s formal challenge to new FDA E-cig regulations.

The Communications Director at TechFreedom, Evan Swarztrauber, did a pretty good job of explaining why the think tank is siding with the E-cig industry on this one.

“This is an absurd way to regulate new technology,” he was quoted as saying on the official TechFreedom website. “The e-cig industry looks nothing like it did in 2007, and setting the most primitive products as a baseline for regulatory approval is the best way to stifle innovation.”

He also went on to say that the FDA’s “obsession with perfect safety will deny Americans what is obviously a safer technology for consuming nicotine,” among other things. The official press release on the website also cited the Public Health England review that said that E-cigs were 95% safer than smoking tobacco – which is interesting.

What do we think about this story?

TechFreedom is obviously making the right call here, in our opinion. Granted, the FDA is probably just doing what it can to draw some kind of base-line for safety and regulation with E-cigs – but it’s obvious that their regulatory language will be severely restricting to the US E-cig manufacturing market.

We know that E-cigs aren’t perfect, and that vaping isn’t as safe as breathing regular, pure oxygen – but in cases like this, we really have to compare them to tobacco cigarettes to keep things in perspective.

As it is, virtually everyone agrees with what has thus-far been proven by studies – that E-cigs are much, much safer than cigarettes. Electronic cigarettes probably offer the best chance we have of getting rid of cigarettes for good – and they do it in a way that’s also bringing people enjoyment.

Information! Nicotine is certainly an addictive substance, and granted, it might be better if nobody used it.

But like it or not, some people are addicted to it – and others choose to continue to use it. For those people, using E-cigs would be a much better and safer alternative to tobacco cigarettes.

E-cigs could potentially help people to ‘step down’ their nicotine habit. Or, it could simply give them their fix without causing a myriad of potential future health problems at the same time.

It is understandable that the FDA wants to keep people safe – but for the sake of millions of vapers who have found a safer way to consume nicotine, we hope that they don’t stifle the market with legislation that will cause perfectly legitimate E-cig companies to have to shut their doors.

About The Author

NicoleIt's my passion to do the research about familiar to me topics, especially when it comes to electronic cigarettes and the whole vaping industry as such. I hope you will find my content useful and when / if you do - please do share it! I will appreciate it! :) See our ''Who We Are'' page to find out more about me and my colleagues. Thanks and I look forward to your comments and feedback.